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Clever Girl: Jungling as Akali

Sry i think i need to rephrase my question. As in i understand that when doing jungle armor pen makes more sense but when it comes to your abilities doing dmg to the enemy champs wouldn't magic pen do more dmg?

Between Crescent Slash and Sheen/Lich Bane your damage is actually fairly evenly split between physical and magical. APen runes also give twice the value of MPen (~18 vs ~9), making APen better once you have Lich Bane.

You will spend a notable amount of time where MPen would technically be better, but the difference APen makes while jungling is absolutely huge, while the difference MPen makes mid-game is not.

I was struggling to find a "optimal" way to jungle with Akali and I fiddled with various masteries and rune setups. Using this guide and the 21/0/9 mastery setup I have found my answer and I will stick with it as it works wonders, absolutely brilliant. Thanks a lot man you really made my day.

Just as info for those interested:
I use is the sterotype Rylai's, Sheen->Lich Bane,Zhonya.
With those three items Akali is really really deadly and I used to have MPen marks but the the massive damage output I really can't tell the difference.
After that it's pretty much game over or whatever fits the situation best. I never replace Doran - unless I upgrade it to say Hextech - as I like having the small amount of vamp.

disagree strongly with hextech, rageblade is better on akali
maybe suggest a fort elixer and 5 health potions? you can clear the jungle starting at blue and double buff gank if you tank ghost/flash/exhaust as your second spell

fort pot also enables far more flexibility in runes and masteries and allows you to jungle pre 30
the reason you run flat ap runes is to get your other passive at level one which makes you jungle a bit faster by adding 10 extra damage each attack

Rageblade is a decent enough early item on Akali. That said, if your game is dragging on to the point where you need to decide what to replace Doran's Blade with, Rageblade is a terrible choice. In that kind of late game slugfest you need both survivability and damage, which Hextech Gunblade provides.

As I said before, if you know you're going to go for a level 4-5 gank then an Elixir of Fortitude is potentially useful. I personally don't like committing myself to that at champion selection. My build allows me to make that decision during the game using knowledge of actual in-game conditions rather than relying on pure prognostication. The ability to adapt to the game is too valuable to me to pass up for a slightly faster gank.

disagree strongly with hextech, rageblade is better on akali
maybe suggest a fort elixer and 5 health potions? you can clear the jungle starting at blue and double buff gank if you tank ghost/flash/exhaust as your second spell

fort pot also enables far more flexibility in runes and masteries and allows you to jungle pre 30
the reason you run flat ap runes is to get your other passive at level one which makes you jungle a bit faster by adding 10 extra damage each attack

If you have to run fort pot to jungle you really just shouldn't bother. It's not like Akali really needs blue anyways, she ain't no mana champ, it's not like her double buff gank is particularly strong (your fort pot will run out way before her wicked strong gank at level 6), the benefit you get from level 1 AP passive is not really that big of a deal, and if you can't jungle Akali is still ok in the lane.

Personally, if I had to choose between 300 gold and 15 fewer seconds on my jungle cycle... I'd choose 300 gold. The only way as a jungler that you could make up that difference is if the 15 seconds somehow guaranteed 2 kills from the 2v2 lane.

Rageblade is a decent enough early item on Akali. That said, if your game is dragging on to the point where you need to decide what to replace Doran's Blade with, Rageblade is a terrible choice. In that kind of late game slugfest you need both survivability and damage, which Hextech Gunblade provides.

As I said before, if you know you're going to go for a level 4-5 gank then an Elixir of Fortitude is potentially useful. I personally don't like committing myself to that at champion selection. My build allows me to make that decision during the game using knowledge of actual in-game conditions rather than relying on pure prognostication. The ability to adapt to the game is too valuable to me to pass up for a slightly faster gank.

hextech isnt worth it because rageblade synergizes far better with akali, she can easily charge it up and gets a ton of ap from it in the process

Quote:

Personally, if I had to choose between 300 gold and 15 fewer seconds on my jungle cycle... I'd choose 300 gold. The only way as a jungler that you could make up that difference is if the 15 seconds somehow guaranteed 2 kills from the 2v2 lane.

15 seconds could be the difference between getting a whole buff, if you bp and come back when the enemy team has a jungler they could take 1-2 camps and screw you up

Between Crescent Slash and Sheen/Lich Bane your damage is actually fairly evenly split between physical and magical. APen runes also give twice the value of MPen (~18 vs ~9), making APen better once you have Lich Bane.

You will spend a notable amount of time where MPen would technically be better, but the difference APen makes while jungling is absolutely huge, while the difference MPen makes mid-game is not.

hextech isnt worth it because rageblade synergizes far better with akali, she can easily charge it up and gets a ton of ap from it in the process

Erm ... Hextech fules her passive (rageblade does this too), but hextech gives leech, vamp and a nifty clicky as well. Rage blade is best suited for a auto attack hybrid class like say Kayle where rageblade works well with his fury thingy.
I don't know about you but I don't auto attack much with Akali in fights. That is to say I rarely do auto attacks beyond bursting my marks. This is because either you are hiding in shroud doing your poke thing or you are chasing and doing your funky combo thing. Thing is usually if you do not use your shroud or being in a position where your team has the upper hand in advance and you just autoattack with Akali you will get focusing and burned down as geared up Akali is always a major threat to the other team.
Rageblade is not even on my list of considerations because there are far better items for Akali. And this comes from testing it my self, not mere theorycraft.
That said, when you have Rylai's, Lich Bane and Zhonya you really dont need more damage to do your job and could very well stack defensive items like a GA, Banshee, etc. Since by now your enemies are likely capable of hurting you good as well.

Erm ... Hextech fules her passive (rageblade does this too), but hextech gives leech, vamp and a nifty clicky as well. Rage blade is best suited for a auto attack hybrid class like say Kayle where rageblade works well with his fury thingy.
I don't know about you but I don't auto attack much with Akali in fights. That is to say I rarely do auto attacks beyond bursting my marks. This is because either you are hiding in shroud doing your poke thing or you are chasing and doing your funky combo thing. Thing is usually if you do not use your shroud or being in a position where your team has the upper hand in advance and you just autoattack with Akali you will get focusing and burned down as geared up Akali is always a major threat to the other team.
Rageblade is not even on my list of considerations because there are far better items for Akali. And this comes from testing it my self, not mere theorycraft.
That said, when you have Rylai's, Lich Bane and Zhonya you really dont need more damage to do your job and could very well stack defensive items like a GA, Banshee, etc. Since by now your enemies are likely capable of hurting you good as well.

i dont auto attack with akali when im not pushing creep waves, but i can say that because of that you want a rageblade more then a hextech, the lifesteal is a useless stat and the active doesn't do much if you bought rylais
rage blade boosts your AP quite a bit so it is better for your burst

Nonono ... You might, I certainly do not. Rageblade can be used for Akali sure but for me it's extremely far down the list. Having to farm creepwaves before attacking utilizing Rageblade to it fullest is NOT something I would even consider since it's a disadvantage and a unecessary prerequisite. I am not saying that you absolutely want Hextech for Akali I rarely get it as having Rylai, Lich Bane, Zhonya is pretty much what you need. I might get a Hextech to replace my Doran's blade to buff my passive further and guess what I do not have to charge it. But the spell vamp from hextech and your passive + Life leech may not make you a warwick but it certainly is notable. And the clicky might not make or break the game but it is a free nuke. Rageblade simly has nothing that compares.